


The Blackbird Breaks In

by brevitas



Series: Not the Face! [4]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Modern AU, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-19
Updated: 2013-05-19
Packaged: 2017-12-12 07:00:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brevitas/pseuds/brevitas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grantaire is shown to his room and wakes to Blackbird breaking into Les Amis' compound; a battle wages and Enjolras requests Grantaire make the greatest sacrifice to save a friend.</p><p>Or in which Enjolras finally gets a clue about why Grantaire is sticking around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blackbird Breaks In

Once Enjolras is satisfied with the answers Grantaire has provided about his powers he leans back in his chair, folding his arms across his stomach. His costume is a bit cleaner this time, and Grantaire can only see a dark stain at his sleeve that he thinks may be residue from the man Jehan dispatched.

"Combeferre?" He asks the room at large, and Grantaire frowns at him. He never sees people communicate with the telepathic this way; most don't feel encouraged to look even more unstable by talking aloud and prefer thinking very loudly instead.

He tips his head back and waits for Enjolras to finish up his silent conversation when Combeferre's voice echoes in his skull too. " _Yes, Enjolras?_ "

Grantaire sits up so quickly that his knees bang against the table, and Enjolras casts him an unimpressed glance. "Could you please assign someone to show Grantaire to his room?"

" _Certainly. I'm sending Marius._ "

"Thank you, Combeferre," Enjolras replies with an absent smile. "And when Grantaire gets settled I can come debrief you."

Grantaire frowns as Combeferre's laugh sounds, and he resists the urge to cover his ears--he knows it will only amplify the noise rather than muffle it. " _Excellent. Have a good night, Grantaire._ "

"Sure," Grantaire answers, scratching his chin. "I'll see you in the morning."

Marius is quick to answer Combeferre's summons, and appears in the doorway not a minute after the telepath's silence. He's still wearing his costume but has stripped himself of his gloves and mask, and holds them both in one hand.

"Come to Mission Control when you've finished," Enjolras says, and strides past him. Marius nods curtly then turns to Grantaire and smiles.

"Come on," he says cheerily. "Let's go check out your room."

Grantaire follows him, hands in his pockets. Marius brings him to a hallway he hadn't seen in his initial explorations and takes him to the very end, where one door stands open. "Here we are," he says, gesturing Grantaire into the bedroom and leaning in to turn the light on. It's a modest set-up, and Grantaire can't find any fault with it.

He turns back to the doorway and Marius smiles broadly at him. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

"No." There's a small bathroom to the right, and it looks as well-stocked as the guest room. Grantaire is actually rather surprised with the state of the bedroom, and he wonders how many other superheroes they've abducted. (Inwardly, he sighs; he knows he's being childish, yet he can't help but feel that he's being turned into a prisoner here.)

"Awesome." Marius tugs a key out of his pocket and says, "So we'll come and unlock you at six thirty; that's when we have breakfast."

Grantaire lifts an eyebrow--he hadn't realized they were going to lock him in despite his earlier musings--and says loudly, "Listen, kid, I'm only gonna stay in here and not shoot myself if you can get me some alcohol. Is that at all possible?"

Marius pauses. Enjolras hadn't told him anything specifically about denying Grantaire alcohol; all he'd said was not to fall for it if Grantaire asked to go out on a walk. He shifts from foot to foot then finally says, "Okay, I guess I can do that. Wait here."

He leaves the door open and Grantaire sits on the bed, prepared to wait him out, but Marius returns in a smear of green. He blinks as the superhero walks in at a more normal pace, carrying a half-full bottle of whiskey. "Is this alright?" He asks doubtfully, looking down at the label as he holds it out to Grantaire. "I couldn't find much else."

"It's fine," he answers, taking the bottle, and in a blink Marius has returned to the door. Grantaire knows he's moved unnaturally fast because he can feel the slight ruffle of a breeze from the enhanced speed. He grins and watches as Marius finally figures out the lock, pulling the door shut.

"Goodnight!" He calls through, and Grantaire snorts as he flops back on his bed.

+++++

When he'd finally reached the end of the bottle at one he cast it away from him and lay back, curling one arm up under his head. Grantaire rarely has trouble sleeping; he dozes off pleasantly, drunk and warm, comfortable for the first time in a long time.

It's the caterwauling sirens that wake him two hours later, and the light insistently flashing from the corner of the ceiling. He groans and sits up, just hungover enough that the noise is unpleasant.

His door rattles on its hinges, and is flung inwards with such a great force that it breaks in two when it bounces against the opposite wall. He stares at the woman who walks in, flanked by two bigger thugs cradling guns. It's the villain from earlier, the one they called Blackbird.

She stops upon seeing him, narrowing her eyes. "Who are you?" She asks, her tone clipped. She lifts a hand and holds it up to him, palm-out, and Grantaire knows without being told that whatever it is she did to that door she did with her hands. He is quick to respond.

"I'm uh, Apollo's enemy," he says quickly, conjuring the flimsy lie off the top of his head. "He put me in here to make sure I didn't leave before his telepath got a crack at me."

She tilts her head (it is a strangely bird-like motion) and looks at her men, who expressionlessly look back at her. When she faces him again she drops her hand and smirks. "You want a chance to get out, kid?"

He hates when people call him kid, and he tries to soothe his hackles back so as not to look exceptionally irritated. "Actually I'm kinda waiting on a rescue attempt myself," he says. "So I'm gonna have to say no."

Whatever else she might have asked him is cut off when a man out in the hall shouts, "Blackbird! We got heroes tryin' to come in through the kitchen!"

She turns around and out of the corner of his eye Grantaire notices the wall to the side of him is starting to look pretty strange; he blinks when Marius leans through it, setting a finger against his lips. He gestures Grantaire to him when he's sure he's not going to make noise and the immortal comes, casting a single glance at Blackbird (she's much too busy organizing her men to notice his quiet shuffling). Marius grabs his wrist and yanks and when he's sure he's about to face-plant into the wall, he slides through instead.

He ends up sprawled on top of Marius, who looks up at him and blushes. Grantaire realizes he has about a million freckles across his cheeks, and they get more noticeable when the color behind them changes.

"When you two lovebirds are done staring into each other's eyes we kinda need to get a move on." Grantaire looks up at Courfeyrac, who's grinning down at them. He climbs off of Marius and the younger man nervously tugs at his pajama top, fixing the buttons that were skewed in the fall.

"She's never outright attacked us here before," Courfeyrac says. "Curious that she decided to now."

It's only the three of them in the room but Grantaire can see tiny microphones squatting in both their ears and if he really listens, the slight buzz of voices over the speakers. There's the distant sound of gunfire and then a loud boom that Grantaire assumes is from Blackbird, and Marius braces his weight against the wall when the foundation trembles.

"Alright, guys," Courfeyrac says decisively, straightening up. "We need to head towards the back door. Bahorel's got the front covered but Enjolras wants us to join him to cover the rear." He holds his hand out to Marius and Grantaire and both take it--Marius tugs on them and leads them to the adjacent wall.

Walking through walls is a strange feeling, and Grantaire quickly decides he absolutely hates it. There's a moment of breathlessness when they're in between rooms, a smothering feeling of claustraphobia and the sensation of being swathed in darkness, and the going is slow. Marius checks each room before they go through and the compound is sprawling so it takes them fifteen minutes to get to where they're going.

They step out into the foyer just as a thug is shoved past them, his arms windmilling. His shirt is smoldering at the shoulder and Grantaire quickly discovers why as another flaming ball is hurtled inches in front of them, where it strikes the man's stomach and doubles him over.

Enjolras cups his hands and kindles between his palms another burning sphere. It seems to do nothing to his skin, which blackens but doesn't appear to hurt him. Courfeyrac shifts his arm into that of a gorilla's and smacks it into the thug's face, knocking him promptly unconscious. He slumps to the ground and the trio turns to face Enjolras.

"What are we looking at here?" Marius asks. Grantaire stands behind them with mouth flattened and offers nothing more to the conversation as they discuss logistics; Combeferre is covering them all from the Mission Control room and Bahorel and Jehan are driving everybody towards the back, going through each room and chasing out the villains.

Grantaire doesn't volunteer much in the way of help, merely sidles to the far corner and lets them fight without his interruption. It's rather impressive watching how they work together; none of them talk but when Marius holds out a hand upon being shoved off-balance by a masked man, Courfeyrac catches his elbow and pivots him out of the way and back onto his feet.

Enjolras is a monster--it's breathtaking the first time he singes a swathe of hair off the top of a villain's head, awe-inspiring when he bowls a woman over by the sheer power behind one underhanded throw. He ignores Grantaire and so does everybody else, and for the most part Grantaire ignores them.

He straightens when five men come into the room together, organized this time, and he can tell by the leader that they have their orders; one, wielding what seems to be a doctored cattleprod, goes for Marius. When he sticks him with it Marius makes an inhuman noise and drops immediately. Grantaire can tell from how he falls that he's unconscious.

Two corner Courfeyrac and when he turns into a tiger one decks him; Cour, surprised at being punched while in such a form, barely has time to duck. Enjolras foolishly turns to help and the other two creep up behind him and without thinking Grantaire lunges forward--he knows what will happen just by looking at these men, knows in his bones they're here to kill the infamous leader of Les Amis.

He hadn't shown his powers of flight before and honestly he hadn't been planning to, but there is only one way to intercept them in time and it definitely isn't running.

He throws himself off his feet with such force that he launches a few feet in the air, and he puts his arms straight to either side to gain speed. He takes out the villain so violently that he feels a few ribs crack underneath his chest, and the man cries out while they fall.

He jumps to a stand and Enjolras is looking at him, his stunningly blue eyes lingering on Grantaire's and they're colored by an expression he can't read. It lasts but a heartbeat and then Enjolras turns away, dispatching the two pounding on Courfeyrac's prone form.

Enjolras touches his hands softly to Courfeyrac's face and Grantaire winces when he hears Combeferre's alarmed, " _What happened?_ " It's louder than usual, and his hangover's bothering him again.

"Cour and Marius got hurt," Enjolras answers, his tone subdued. Combeferre is quiet for a long moment.

" _Bahorel and Jehan have cleared the house,_ " he says finally. " _Should I ask Joly to come home?_ " He's their resident doctor but both Combeferre and Enjolras know that he's halfway around the world, and Courfeyrac is bleeding internally. He wouldn't make it no matter how hard he tried.

Enjolras twists around to look at Grantaire. "Heal him," he barks. Grantaire frowns, pocketing his hands, and Enjolras narrows his eyes. " _Heal_ him," he repeats, and there's a desperation in his voice that's almost palpable. When Grantaire hesitates again he says, "You healed me; why won't you heal him?"

Grantaire crosses the room and drops to his knees. His hangover seems amplified and his head hurts when he puts his hands against Courfeyrac's heaving side. He starts the power drain; he can always feel it in his fingertips first, when he flexes and can't even feel the sensation of movement.

Enjolras stays beside him, and rests a hand on his shoulder that Grantaire angrily shrugs off. His eyelids flutter shut and he sags forward, leans more weight on Courfeyrac's side as his consciousness wavers. When he slumps even more he finally answers Enjolras' answer and mutters under his breath, "I'm not always willing to die to save someone else."

He dies then, falls to his side with a loud _thump_. Enjolras looks curiously at him as Courfeyrac begins to stir, his muscles trembling under his fine orange coat. He brushes Grantaire's dark hair away from his forehead and asks him curiously, "Then why did you die for me?"

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys, a lovely little (albeit boring) update to Not the Face!, as requested, delivered to you from the torrid lands of Texas
> 
> requested formally by austrus, flash-thunder, and ohnoitsadalek!
> 
> so nothing very exciting happens this chapter except, le gasp, is Enjolras finally getting the hint? 
> 
> tumblr is idfaciendumest, don't forget to request shit because I love hearing what people want to see next :)


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